Nitrogen injection at Fukushima Daiichi stopped for third time in last month

The systems used to inject nitrogen into the containment and pressure vessels of the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 reactors at Fukushima Daiichi have been reported to have stopped after a worker at the plant found that the amount of nitrogen injection had fallen and confirmed that the system stopped at 4:43 p.m.

TEPCO has not found out the cause of the trouble at this time, but indicated that filter clogging may be one culprit. The utility is using a reserve system to inject nitrogen, which is intended to prevent hydrogen explosions inside of the reactor buildings.

This was the system’s third breakdown in a month. The system stopped on March 12 due to a filter clogging and was replaced by a reserve one, which stopped Wednesday for the same reason.